"We haven't made any final decisions about leaving or remaining eligible", said the athlete. "We were leaning toward going pro. However, we recently heard that the newly re-elected Russian Skating Federation president Valentin Nikolaevich Piseev is talking about creating a special committee, whose function among other things will be getting the help of the government and business community representatives to entice Russian team leaders into continuing their eligible careers. So, if they really want to and can entice us, we'll be sure to stay. However, we haven't yet had any discussion with Valentin Nikolaevich about it".

Earlier, Tatiana Navka has told "All Sport" that this Fall she and her husband and coach Alexander Zhulin will be moving back to Moscow. For the past several years, they've lived and trained in the US.

I, for one, would love for the Diva and that guy she skates with to stick around... She is one of my all time favs and with the exeception of B&A, the only reason I even watch ice dancing... and no, the new teams do nothing for me... but that seems to be the trend in all disciplines as I look towards the coming season... (sigh...)

However, we recently heard that the newly re-elected Russian Skating Federation president Valentin Nikolaevich Piseev is talking about creating a special committee, whose function among other things will be getting the help of the government and business community

Ice sports are well represented. The Russian sports minister is former Detroit Red Wing hockey player Slava Fetisov, and Irina Rodnina is the head of some sort of sports liaison organization with the business community.

With no new first tier skaters in his stable, I think this is the first of the eligible 'retired' skaters to change their minds. Piseev who needs to continue Russian domination in figure skating and with virtually no top names on the horizon willl have to convince last year's gold medalists to hang around.